The New Zealand Herald.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1445, 6 July 1868, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald.

SPECTEMUR AGENDO. " give every man thine ear, but few thy voice • rake each man's censure, but reserve thy judemei This above all, —To thine own gelf be true Alia it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." AUCKLAND, MOKDAY, JULY 6, 186? The apathy shown by the people geneillr in political matters is one of the chief ca«e« P resenfc misgovernment of the colny and the consequent excessive taxation uder which we groan, and hence we look pon such meetingn as that of Thursday &ht a as highly desirable. They terve to ceafce f of interest in political matters an d m no inconsiderable extent to educafo the smi£> 0 U f tteir P olitical position a the 6 Power and government. Thile

! almost every man has a voice in the election of our rulers, very few have other than crude and confused notions, not only.as> to questions of general policy, but A 8 to the particular hearings and surrounding* of those separate questions of policy which make up the whole sun of government. In this respoct the Reform League has fallen short of what it might have done. It ha* not sought to instruct the mass. The platform has been little used. Of political pamphlets we hare seen ione. It has massed together but few facts sad figures, aud such information as it lu> acquired it has taken no popular means of making known. It was peculiarly iti duty to have helped to create aud firm public opinion upon political matter/ in the minds of the people, and this it ha! scarcely attempted. ¥e regret this, for iiueh good might have been effected, and Ais we pointed out at tho time the League was formed, referring to the action takei by Leagues inaugurated at home for the purpose of obtaining particular measures o: reform. In tho absence of such popula! forms of political instruction, meetings su'h as that lately held are all the more desiralle. The Leagie, however, has itself much to learn ere it "in become a useful public instructor. r !iat the colony can be brought to any so mmediate a reduction of taxation as tl.it proposed for consideration of inemben by the League, on Thursday eveuiig last, is more than questionable; whei reduced to plain figures the proposal s simply impracticable.* The

C - J r colour hascertain permanent charges which must "be nst. Tliese include tho civil service, the Iraarna contract, tlie interest and 'sinking fuid on the loans, General and Prorincial, arl some other minor items. These altogetheiamount to close upon £600,000 a-year. Tie annual charge on the loans and Panama sibsidy, which we cannot at present get id of, amount to no less a sum, as we statedin our issue of the 17th ult., than £556,4-i( andyet theLeagueaskedthe Auckland merbers whether they had considered the adviability and practicability of obtaining such.i reform as the following, namely : —" The implification of the General Gro- " Ternmot arrangements, and the reduction "of the lumber of its paid officials to £>uch " an extnt as to admit of the total taxation " by the&eneral Government being reduced " to a gnn not exceeding six hundred and " fifty nousand pounds per annum." A» the pemr.ont charges must be provided for, vre shoid, out of the £050,000 thus proposed to be 'aised, have left a sum of aorno £50,00 only, wherewith to carry on tho government of the colony. This is simply absurd and such efforts at reform as this tend oly to bring ridicule upon the movement. We recommend the members of the Leagu to give some further attention to the qustion of finance. As the Superintendent marked in his speech on Thursday evenig, they have been "laboring in the darl" 2S T o are we at all inclined to believe with the "eague that the Customs' revenuo shoul be reduced in order that the revenue derivble from stamp duties should be increasd, nor indeed that a set sum only shoul be raised by Customs' clues. Such a chaDe would be to introduce class legislation. The Customs' dues are paid by the pubb generally, the stamp duties by a secfrn of the public only. Customs' duties are jit as the least oppressive of all taxes. The are chiefly raised upon luxuries, tobsco and spirits, and no man need pay the? duties who chooses to refrain from the oneor the other. They are paid impercepibly and in infinitesimal proportions— a ery different affair to meeting the cal for so much cash down of the taxat one's door. The Customs' | dus, too, are the most cheaply collected | ofJl taxes. The estimated Customs' return la; year was £870,000 —the cost of collectia £44,471 7s. 6d. A reduction of the taiff also does not mean a corresponding reuction in the cost of collection. The wrk of the department would be very nearly tl) same. It is impossible to fix an arbitrary liiit to the imposition of Customs' dues were the gross sum required as revenue eoeeds the possible amount that can be rised by that tax. In such case it is advissle to raise so much of the amount required t can be profitably done by means of the triff, as pressing more lightly than any j cher means of taxation on the people—and

aerefore the limit of imposition of Customs' ues must be the limit of profitable collecion. At- present the duties rai*ed are iicessive. The. ly'gli rates defeat the desired ;nd. A larger revenue could be raised at ower charges, and the differences of the charges, though more money were collected, would be a saving of so much taxation to

the colony. Take the amount raised with present rate of duties at £SOO,OOO, and assume that by a reduction of one-fourth the rate of duties the sum raised would rea.ch within even £100,000' of the amount at present raised — though we believe that no appreciable decrease could be experienced by the change —there -would accrue a loss of only £100,000 to the revenue, while the people would be saved £200,000 in taxation. The difference would be recovered from those who now defraud the revenue, and who, by a decrease in the- duties, would have their opportunity for doing so destroyed. Thus if in other departments the Government can see its way to save a reduction of £100,000, the revision ofthe tariff might double that saving to the taxpayer without further loss to the revenue. But that there is ample scope for reduction in the colonial expenditure we need only refer to the items of expenditure as we find them in the Estimates for the year ended the 30th of* June last. In . round numbers they are as follows:—Law and justice, £69,1-18; legislative department, £i 1,674 ; general and provincial charges, £31,893; postal services, including telegraph depart-

ment, £148,579; Customs, £44,471 ; native, £34,750 ; militia and volunteers, £24,533 ; miscellaneous, £48,083 ; defence service liabilities, £46,781; Chatham Island, £6,451 ; and last, but not least, the cost of the armed constabulary—a result of the expenditure of the £34,750 spent on native matters—which alone comes to no less a sum than £53,941. !Fifty-three thousand a-year to keep up a standing army of four hundred men and officers! Just about the same sum the League would bind our . members to leave ,'for the whole administration of the government of the colony! As, however, we said before, we are glad that an opportunity for bringing our representatires and their constituents together

has been found. The practice is undoubtedly a good one. Both parties are benefitted by an interchange of ideas. Interest is created in matters of political economy and in the management of public affairs amongst the people generally, and the more the people show themselves alive to what is going on in their political government, tho less likely are they to find themselves saddled with partial and extravagant expenditure. If the people show no interest in, or no desire to secure a wise and proper management of public affairs, those whom they employ to manage these affairs will continue to take matters easily—just as they have done —until at last we are steeped to the very chin in taxation and debt.